What is the first thing you do with a new client?

The health check — a few days on the numbers and in the bar, ending in written findings and an agreed action list. Then setup — every product, prep, batch and drink goes into Deluge ex-tax and per serve, the last month's till report is set against it, and the venue gets an engineering report by section. Everything else is decided from that picture.

Do I have to use Deluge to work with you?

Yes — Deluge is not sold on its own; it comes with the engagement. The costing and the documents come out of it because that is how they stay current, and the venue keeps running on it under a per-venue licence after the engagement. The methods — ex-tax costing, yield-true preps, monthly engineering — are the same in any tool; the app is what makes them hold.

How is the work priced?

On enquiry, as a fixed figure for a defined piece of work. A single bar with a short list is a smaller job than a resort with several outlets and a large cellar, and I would rather quote the real scope than publish a rate that fits neither.

What does a bar consultant actually do — and what does it cost?

Jesse Williams · 18 September 2026

In one paragraph

A bar consultant's job is to put numbers under a beverage programme and leave the venue able to run it without them. In practice every engagement starts with a profitability health check, then setup in Deluge — every drink costed, the list engineered, the team's documents published — after which the venue keeps running on Deluge under a per-venue licence; a project such as an opening or a new list, and the ongoing monthly numbers, build on that. The venue hands over its menus, price lists, a till report and its recipes; it gets back written findings and agreed actions, a costed database, cost per serve and GP on every line, an engineering report and a re-price and re-cut list. Pricing is on enquiry because the scope depends on the size of the list and the number of outlets; the health check and setup are quoted as a fixed number once the venue is described.

The word consultant covers a lot, so it is worth saying exactly what I do and do not do.

What the job is

A beverage programme is a set of numbers and a set of documents: what each drink costs, what it sells for, what the team needs on the bench to make it, and what the owner needs on one page to know it is working. My job is to build those, prove them against real sales, and leave them with the venue in a form that stays true after I have gone.

I have done every job in the bar — cellar, floor, bar, management, licensee — and I will do them again on site. That matters because the fixes that work are the ones the team can run on a Saturday.

The shape of an engagement

The health check. Where every engagement starts. A few days on your numbers and in the venue looking at what quietly costs money: costing and pricing, the sales mix, stock control, pars and ordering, waste, the prep programme, the flow of service. Written findings and a prioritised action list with the money attached — the record your team then reads in Deluge, beside the targets we set.

Setup. The venue goes into Deluge. Every product, prep, batch and cocktail costed ex-tax and per serve; the sales mix set against it; a report by section with a re-price plan to a target GP and a re-cut list, costed; the team’s documents published. Remote, from your price lists, till report and recipes. No licence fee during setup.

A project. An opening, a relaunch or a new list — designed for the room and the team, costed to a target GP before the first drink is poured, with the specs, preps, batching and launch training built in rather than added later. Technical where it earns its place: clarifications and washes, cordials and infusions, carbonated, kegged and bottled serves.

Licence and ongoing. After setup your team keeps running on Deluge under a per-venue monthly licence that covers the app alone — hosting, the vault, the team link, updates. The monthly numbers — till report in, engineering report out, prices kept honest, purchasing and the POS reconciled, an hour with the owner each month — are quoted as work, separately.

What you hand over

Less than you would think. Your current menus. Your supplier price lists — a spreadsheet or the portal’s export is fine. A recent till report with sales by item. Your recipes as they exist, even in a notebook or a bartender’s phone. I do the data entry; you check what comes back.

What you get back

A costed product database that is yours. Cost per serve and GP on every listing. Costed preps, batches and recipes with their real yields. A menu engineering report the owner can read in one sitting. Spec cards, prep sheets and order sheets the team reads on their phones through one shared link — no staff accounts, nothing to install. And the app those documents come from, which your team keeps running on under a per-venue licence when the engagement ends.

Why the price is on enquiry

Because the honest unit of work is a venue, not an hour. A neighbourhood bar with forty lines and one till is a different job from a resort with four outlets, a six-hundred-bottle cellar and a purchasing system that has never met the POS. I quote the health check and setup as a fixed figure once I know the list, the outlets and what already exists; the licence that follows is a per-venue monthly fee for the app alone. Tell me about the venue and you will have a number, not a rate card.

What I do not do

I do not sell stock, and I do not take a margin from suppliers. I do not integrate software with your POS. I do not build a programme that depends on me being in the room. If the fix cannot be run by the team on a busy night, it is not the fix.